Happy Truth Dependence Day 2021

If you are reading on a smartphone, use landscape / hold phone sideways.

Drafted by Thomas Jefferson between June 11 and June 28, 1776, the Declaration of Independence is at once the nation's most cherished symbol of liberty and Jefferson's most enduring monument. Here, in exalted and unforgettable phrases, Jefferson expressed the convictions in the minds and hearts of the American people. The political philosophy of the Declaration was not new; its ideals of individual liberty had already been expressed by John Locke and the Continental philosophers. What Jefferson did was to summarize this philosophy in "self-evident truths" and set forth a list of grievances against the King in order to justify before the world the breaking of ties between the colonies and the mother country.

Dependence: the quality or state of being dependent; especially: the quality or state of being influenced or determined by or subject to another.

Examples of DEPENDENCE

• The company was hurt by its dependence on government loans.
• Our dependence upon foreign oil makes our economy vulnerable.
• The country has a dependence on foreign trade.

I find it interesting, that our great country, our entire way of life was built on the concept of Independence. But everything that we talk about, everything that we fight for, and everything that we pay for is the opposite of living a life of independence.

The same country that was born out of independence is now very dependent indeed. And technology has always been at the heart of it all.

We fought for our independence in 1776. And we used the technology of the day (ships, muskets, cannon, maps) to fight and win that war. How long ago was that exactly?

From and including: Thursday, July 4, 1776

To, but not including Sunday, July 4, 2021

Result: 89,485 days. Or:

• 7,731,504,000 seconds
• 128,858,400 minutes
• 2,147,640 hours
• 12,783 weeks and 4 days.

It took me just a few seconds to figure out exactly how many days (or even hours) ago the Declaration of Independence was signed. But, I could not do the above cut and paste magic without - wait for it - my good friend Google and his father (the military brat who was born in the USA) The Internet.

As a self-employed businessman, I am very dependent on technology, and I am not alone. Business, Higher Education, Medicine, the world of Finance, and certainly the Military is very deeply DEPENDENT on many things, but none so much as our deep and growing mutual dependence on technology. Ships, trains, automobiles, computers, telephone. The mastery of the sea, air and space. All of this since our declaring our INDEPENDENCE.

From Google:

Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over the territory. The opposite of independence is a dependent territory. Independence does not necessarily mean freedom.

Catch that?  

Independence does not necessarily mean freedom. Freedom is not free, and neither is the Internet, or solar power, or electric cars, or any of the things that we connect to living in the country known as the home of the free and the land of the brave.

July 4th, 1776 was the date that we DECLARED our Day of Independence. Funny how we never declared our date of DEPENDENCE.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident....."

Monarchy asserts that all men are NOT created equal, that the King or Emperor possesses rights significantly greater than those persons subject to the ruler. A monarch has the ability to create, suspend or obviate existing laws by their own volition. Life could be taken by a King. Liberty could be suspended or destroyed by an emperor, and the pursuit of happiness did not factor into many lives subject to tyrannical rulers.

Today, Freedom requires the Mastery of Technology. No Question.

But also this: Freedom cannot exist without the rule of law.

Freedom cannot co-exist with lies.

Above all: Freedom DEPENDS on the Truth.

And the enemies of FREEDOM know this all too well.

No "Alternative Facts" allowed, thank you very much.

Our founding fathers were fueled on ideals that were once seemingly revolutionary: freedom and democracy. America was born from the idea of providing opportunity and equality for all. The Mastery of Technology made the USA possible. Lies stop us from reaching our full potential in business and life - and as a country.

America: The Great Experiment. Today: the misuse of technology (to spread lies and falsehoods) can destroy our country. And that's the truth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_facts

https://www.politicususa.com/2021/07/02/rudy-giuliani-fox-news-big-lie.html

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2021/06/facebook-insurrection-was-not-our-fault/619114/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/05/06/twitter-facebook-trump-posts/

Truth, Justice and the American Way